An Arizona man reportedly took off with a dinosaur claw worth $25,000 from a Tucson gem show and tried to sell it to another vendor days later in Arizona.
Christopher Thomas, 39, allegedly stole two Spinosaurus claws worth $25,000 each from an exhibitor named Eric Miller at the city's Gem and Mineral Show helmed on Jan. 30. However, Thomas was caught after he tried to sell one of the claws to another vendor on Feb. 8 for a much lower price, Daily News reported.
After snatching the rare claws, Thomas returned to the same venue days later and offered one of the fossils for a much lower price to a vendor named Adam Aaronson. However, Aaronson was actually working with Miller to run a classic sting operation after the former lost his dinosaur claws.
Aaronson told Thomas that he’d found a different buyer to buy his claws and set up a meeting for Feb. 8. However, when Thomas showed up for the meeting, the buyer turned out to be Miller, who’d also tipped off officers at the event.
"When I saw it come into the room where I was hiding as the potential buyer, I was absolutely thrilled,” Miller said.
Aaronson then reportedly confronted Thomas and warned him that they would call the police, NBC News reported.
“I told the guy, ‘Sorry we have a problem, this claw is stolen property. We’re gonna have to call the police,’” Aaronson said.
Tucson police already had officers on site who then detained Thomas, took him into custody, and charged him with trafficking stolen property.
After Thomas' arrest, Tucson police stated that the case "highlights the importance of vendors/neighbors communicating and working together."
Meanwhile, even though Miller got one of his stolen claws back from Thomas, the second stolen claw still remains missing.
In a similar but unrelated incident, a man reportedly stole a dinosaur statue from a Route 66 souvenir shop on Dec. 26, 2021, KJRH reported.
On Dec. 26, 2021, an unidentified man allegedly walked into the Decopolis store located on 11th Street near Lewis with his dog and used some tools to remove a Deinonychus statue, and took off with it.
Meanwhile, William Franklin, the owner of Decopolis, said that he was planning on bolting the dinosaur down and that the suspect got to it before he had the chance to.
According to Franklin, the statue helped attract customers and contributed to a rise in revenue over the Christmas season.
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